Unfortunately, not all cheetahs from CCF are releasable like the ones I talked about in my last post. Because of human wildlife conflict, the pet trade, and natural occurrences, many cheetahs end up at CCF for life. If a cheetah is raised by humans it is difficult to teach it not only how and what to hunt, but to teach it a healthy fear of humans that will keep it safe. CCF judges each cheetah that comes in on an individual basis, but a general rule is that if a cub comes to us under the age of 6 months old, it probably will need too much human contact to be a release candidate. With the 8 cheetahs we just released gone, CCF currently has 35 cheetahs (since we recently added 3 3-4 month old cubs into the mix). Here are some of their stories….

Romeo and his Juliettes:

Romeo is a 12 year old male. This fella was kept as a pet for the first 7 years of his life. When the law changed in Namibia no longer allowing people to keep cheetahs as pets, he was turned over to CCF. Typically cheetahs live solitarily or in small groups of males called coalitions. Because of this, we introduced Romeo to other males of similar age when he arrived, but they wanted nothing to do with him. His house cat mannerisms and odd human loving behavior put off the other males who bullied or ignored him. Because of this, we introduced him to 4 females. Again, you don't typically find groups of adult females together in the wild, but in captivity grouping females together allows them to have kinship and recognize they have others of their kind. The 4 girls consist of Aurora, Rainbow, Harry, and Hermione. Aurora and Rainbow are about 6 years old and the best of friends. Aurora's mother was shot by a farmer who wanted to keep a cheetah as a pet, but after about 10 days realized having a very wild cub as a pet was a terrible idea, and she was confiscated. Rainbow was found on the side of the road with no mother, very weak and malnourished. She was brought in around the same time as Aurora so they grew up together. Harry and Hermione and their brother Ron were brought in due to being orphaned at a young age as well. CCF staff at the time thought they were getting 2 males, hence "Harry" but she turned out to be a female and got placed with her sister and Romeo since they are about the same age. It is illegal to breed large carnivores in Namibia however, so Romeo is castrated. All males placed with females are either castrated or have hormone implants to prevent them from breeding. They've found that these implants in female cheetahs have side effects and can cause cancer, but have had no noticed adverse effects in males.

The Scientist Boys:

Fossey, Darwin, and Livingston, the scientist boys, are quite startling to see at first, and one might think they are young cats. In fact, they are all adults. These boys were found in a totally dark garage with several other cheetahs, obviously going to be exported for the illegal pet trade. Since these cheetahs had so little mobility and improper nutrition at a young age, they never properly grew and are short and stocky, unlike the typically tall and lean cheetah form. They still can walk and even run properly, but will never be as big or fast as their wild counterparts, making them unreleasable.

The 3 males:

Similarly, we have two brothers named Nico and Koya who were raised in a chicken coup and fed a diet with very little calcium. When CCF received them, their feet were facing almost totally outwards and they could hardly walk. Thanks to proper space and a good diet, their paws have mostly corrected themselves, but like the scientist boys they will never be able to properly run and have been left with metabolic bone disease. These brothers also live with Katiti. This young male was brought in with Bella, a female, but CCF keepers noticed Katiti purring at Nico and Koya through the fence and since they were all around the same age decided to place him with the brothers. The 3 are all now almost 2 years old and the best of friends.

Other CCF cheetahs stories range from having a rubber ball removed from their stomach, to being cut out of their dead mother in order to survive, to their mom being killed by a leopard. Dominic who is shown in this posts picture was hand raised like many cheetahs here. These are just some of the sad and unfortunate stories to be found at CCF and around the world for captive wildlife. Just like what I've seen with domestic rehabilitation, each animal has a unique yet all too familiar past. Humans continue to harm not only individual animals (who can and do feel pain and suffering as we do) but harm entire populations and ecosystems. These systems are both fragile yet resilient, and need these large carnivores to persist in a healthy and sustained manner. Just as the ocean needs sharks, North America needs wolves, and South America needs the Jaguar, Namibia, and the world, needs the cheetah.